1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an online data feed coordinating technique. More specifically, multiple feeds, such as those provided in an online meeting, are formatted into a single composite, multi-paned window display and participant nodes can uniquely program their composite display.
2. Description of the Related Art
With increased bandwidth available at lower costs, and increased inexpensive multimedia processing, the popularity and use of online meetings (e.g., eMeetings) has increased dramatically. In general, such meetings consist of multiple remotely located participants, each providing and receiving both a video and audio feed. A problem arises as to how to select and/or combine these feeds for display to each of the meeting's participants.
For example, “Sametime Meeting”® is a product that allows a given meeting participant to “share” their computer screen with other meeting participants. This sharing displays all windows of the given user's computer on the other participants' computers. Only one participant's screen can be shared at a given time, two participants' screens cannot be viewed at once.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,908 to Poirier et al. describes a system and method in which the audio from all meeting participants is combined and broadcast to all, but where only the video from the party with the loudest audio signal is sent. Here again, participants are able to see only one video feed at a time.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,649 to Smith et al. also describes a system and method providing the broadcast of only one of several input feeds. With this invention, each participant is able to specify his or her own selection criterion, but still only one video is broadcast at a given time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,972 to Kannes describes a system that combines video feeds and provides a composite image to each of the meeting's participants. The composite image is composed of several tiled windows, one tile of which is larger than the others. One of the video feeds, the “primary feed,” is displayed in this larger section. This primary feed is determined either by one of the meeting's participants (e.g., the chairperson) or by monitoring which of the feeds has the loudest audio signal. Here, every participant sees the same composite image. That is, the individual participants cannot specify their own feed arrangement rules.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,050 to Kamata et al. describes a system and method that provides a composite image to each of the meeting participants, where the composite image includes a tiling of the feeds from the meeting's one or more participants. Here, each participant can indicate how he or she wants the feeds arranged in the composite image. This invention is limited in that it only allows for two feed-image reduction rates, one for the active speaker and another for non-speakers. Individual users cannot specify their own arbitrary rates.
Further, the technique described by Kamata et al. only allows one pane to be designated as the “speaker's” pane (e.g., the largest). There is no way provided to a given participant to have more than one feed kept to have this selection based on a criterion other than who is the current speaker.
For example, in a scenario involving a salesperson and a customer and using the conventional methods described above, there is no provision for the salesperson to emphasize the customer's image, regardless of whom is currently speaking.
Thus, there remains a need for a system and method that takes the audio and video feeds from the multiple users of an online meeting, combines them and returns a composite image to each participant, where each participant potentially is able to specify their own composite layout arrangement rules. A need also remains for a method and system where the criteria for these layout rules are not restricted to audio level and explicit user choices.